The Gilded Age Plains City

Exploring the City This interactive map helps visualize the complex and complicated political, social, and cultural terrain of the spatial narrative of Lincoln, Nebraska. Read more...

University In 1869 the State legislature of Nebraska designated Lincoln as the site of the State University and the city directed building to the vacant land just to the north of the town settlement, on the edge of downtown; the University's fateful decision to settle there thus intertwined campus and city life indefinitely. Read more...

Transportation In the eyes of city boosters, the establishment of the state capitol at Lincoln, soon followed by its selection for the site of the State University, was insufficient to assure its sustained economic development. To ensure its future, the city first needed to plug into the regional or national railroad system as it expanded west in the late 1860s. Read more...

Bench & Bar (Law & Order) From the earliest development of towns in the West, lawyers had played a central role in the development of a booster ethos. Read more...

Boosters Urban growth does not just happen. A number of individuals have to step forward to provide political and social leadership to formulate an economic strategy that will foster both economic growth and development. Read more...

Demimonde The arrest of Mary Sheedy for the murder of her husband compelled Lincolnites to confront growing concerns—more so than they did in day to day life—that the contemporary gender system was under assault. Read more...

Working Class As a railroad town, Lincoln's working class was rooted in thousands of men and women who worked on the Burlington and Missouri River Railroad system as well as the other railroads that entered and operated in Lincoln. Havelock, a few miles up the track to the northeast of Lincoln, was established as a site of the Burlington body and repair shops; it developed as a working class suburb of Lincoln. Read more...